Ohio’s Own: Eban Bakery Gluten-Free Bread

Might as well venture into the whole Gluten-Free Fad. True, some people have celiac disease. And some people have physical reactions to gluten products that make Montezuma’s Revenge look like a walk in the park: they can’t even lick an Oreo without feeling like their guts are desperately trying to escape their bodies.

And some people are just self-obsessed hypochondriacs –or they want to lose weight. Blame the trendies for the world’s eye rolling skepticism about gluten disorders. Regardless of authenticity, the trendies have also created a ginormous market for gluten-free products: gluten-less products are all over the place. While gluten-free chocolate has always pretty easy to find (who puts wheat in chocolate, anyway?), specialty breads and pastas now exist in abundance too–and they compete with traditional products for shelf space at groceries.

Which is how Eban Bakery Seeded Bread was found, in the aisle of a local grocer. The loaf fairly hollered “BUY ME” from the baked goods section. It’s densely covered with sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sesame seeds.

In fact, you know Health Nut Bread? It looks exactly how you’d like it to look . . . (although, Health Nut is never-in-reality really loaded with all that stuff)

Anyway, this Eban Bakery seedy thing also happens to be gluten-free. That label may be overly trendy, but it couldn’t possibly detract from the beauty of all those encrusted seeds.

The loaf did not disappoint. There were lots of those same goodies inside –some in every bite. The texture was a little different from a traditional bread; gluten makes traditional bread sort of pliable and stretchy, and the Eban loaf has a finer crumb, like a quick (leavened) bread.

Bonus: According to the ingredient listing, the gluten-bread is made with lots of organic things -organic brown rice flour, organic cane juice and lots of organic seeds.

Best of all, Eban Bakery is based nearby in Grove City, Ohio. Its products can be found a local gourmet grocers and farmers’ markets.